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THE 
 
 DANGER AND HOPE 
 
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 THE A M E Rl .C A N PEOPLE: 
 
 DISCOURSE 
 
 ON THE DAY OF THE ANNUAL THANKSGIVING, IN THE' -; 
 STATE OF NEW-YORK. ' 
 
 BY GARDINER SPRING, 
 
 Pastor of the Brick Presbyterian Cliurch, in the cit)' of New -York. 
 
 i^ 
 
 NEW-YORK : 
 
 JOHN F. TROW, PRINTER, lU NASSAU -STREET. 
 A. D. 1813. 
 
THE 
 
 DANGER AND HOPE 
 
 OP 
 
 THE AMERICAN PEOPLE 
 
 DISCOURSE 
 
 ON THE DAY OF THE ANNUAL THANKSGIVING, IN THE 
 STATE OF NEW-YORK. 
 
 y 
 
 BY GARDINER SPRING, 
 
 Pastor of the Brick Presbyterian Church, in the city of New-York. 
 
 
 .\'^\'^'^'^ \ 
 
 NEW-YORK : 
 
 JOHN F. TROW, PRINTER, 114 N A S S AU- STR E E T . 
 A. D. 1843. 
 
EE 
 
 
 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1843, by 
 
 JOHN F. TROW, 
 
 in the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Southeru 
 
 District of New- York. 
 
A DISCOURSE, 
 
 Psalm 46 : 1. God is our refuge and strength, a very present help 
 in trouble. 
 
 Every man is responsible not only for what he 
 says and does, but for what he neglects to say and 
 do. God and his fellow-men hold him responsible ; 
 and though he himself may scarcely survive either 
 the good he implores, or the evil he deprecates, he 
 is responsible to those who come after him. 
 
 There are great political axioms that are inde- 
 pendent of party interests, and alike relevant to all 
 parties. While the pulpit is not the arena of polit- 
 ical debate, and ought never to be diverted from its 
 peaceful character to the purposes of secular con- 
 troversy, yet is there no such mutual and instinc- 
 tive antipathy between the gospel of the Son of 
 God, and the great interests of the nation, that these 
 interests may not, on some occasions, be befitting 
 topics of consideration in the Sacred Desk. Is 
 there not rather an obligation on the ministers of 
 religion, if there are dangers that threaten the com- 
 monwealth, to speak of them ; and, if such there be, 
 
to speak also of well-grounded hopes in the midst 
 of these dangers, and a refuge from them? And 
 may not some such view, especially at the present 
 crisis, enable us to take a more extended survey of 
 the motives to that thankful spirit which our pres- 
 ent meeting is designed to express and promote 1 
 It is to these two topics, therefore, that I respectfully 
 solicit your attention in this discourse — the danger 
 
 AND THE HOPE OP THE AMERICAN PEOPLE j desirOUS 
 
 that both may be appreciated, and that, with a 
 heart of fervent gratitude, we may the better ap- 
 preciate the composing and inspiriting thought, that 
 " God is our refuge and strength, a very present 
 help in trouble.'' 
 
 We will, 
 
 I. Direct our thoughts to some of the dangers 
 which threaten the American people. 
 
 I say the dangers which threaten the American 
 people, because, though it is almost an anomaly in 
 the history of the world, the American people, 
 in a high sense, constitute the American govern- 
 ment. The destiny of this nation is in the hands of 
 the people. If we have not good rulers, wholesome 
 laws, and a good government, it is the fault of the 
 people. The character of the people decides the des- 
 tiny of the nation. The institutions and laws of 
 most other lands exert an original influence in form- 
 ing the national character; while in this land the 
 people themselves form the institutions and laws, 
 and are influenced by them only as they are the 
 creatures of their own making. Nothing is more 
 obvious, therefore, than that the social order and 
 
permanent prosperity of a nation, constituted as our 
 own is constituted, are chiefly jeoparded by evils 
 which breathe their poison into the elements of so- 
 ciety, affect public opinion, and corrupt the mass of 
 the people. Other sources of apprehension are 
 theoretical, distant, and imaginary ; these are real, 
 present, and practical. And among them may be 
 specified, 
 
 1. The violence and rancour of the spirit of 
 party. 
 
 Of the existence and prevalence of this mis- 
 chievous spirit most are conscious ; while by all 
 good men it is bitterly bewailed. Men may have 
 honest differences of opinion in politics. We 
 have no serious fears from these differences, where 
 they are founded in principle ; for, where the de- 
 signs of men are honest, even though they may 
 be mistaken, they rarely suffer themselves to be 
 carried beyond the bounds of reason. It is when 
 the spirit of party has for its object less worthy 
 aims than the great principles of government — is 
 not so much the laws of the land as the men 
 who shall administer them — not so much the 
 country as the party, the pride of power, and the 
 honours and immunities of office, that it excites 
 apprehension and alarm, and threatens lasting 
 evil. Blind passion, hurried and fiery zeal, unhal- 
 lowed combinations, false representations, and a 
 proselyting spirit, precipitate conduct and reckless- 
 ness of consequences, always then mark its charac- 
 ter, and show how much it is to be dreaded. 
 
 Such, to a lamentable extent, is the character 
 1* 
 
of the two great political parties that are struggling 
 for the mastery in this land. To which of them 
 shall we look for a spirit which reason and con- 
 science can approve; for an organized system of 
 measures which has any other object than to per- 
 petuate itself; or for an elevated and disinterested 
 policy 7 Which seeks not to sustain itself by the 
 same unworthy means that are the reproach of its 
 opposers ? Which is the less artful and intriguing ; 
 W'hich the less stimulated by the love of office and 
 gain; which hesitates the least in aspersing the 
 good and applauding the vile ; and which is not in- 
 cited by its partisan fury, to courses alike incon- 
 sistent with integrity, truth, and honour ; or scruples 
 at any thing, so it may carry its point? 
 
 During the first eight years of our national his- 
 tory, party politics had comparatively little influ- 
 ence either with the government or the people. 
 But at the present day, the nation is divided into 
 parties from habit. What one party approves, the 
 other looks upon with a watchful and jealous eye. 
 No man in power, and no aspirant for office ven- 
 tures to presume that his opponents may be influ- 
 enced by honest principles. It is not a single 
 question on which tlie spirit of party exerts its in- 
 fluence, but every question ; nor is it a single skir- 
 mish or campaign, but a continuous war, and an 
 unbroken cannonade. Almost every man in the 
 community is marked by his party. There is not 
 a ward in our cities, nor a school district in our in- 
 terior, but is searched and scoured, in order to 
 make out a register of these political combatants^ 
 
and give them their instructions for the cruel onset. 
 I say the cruel onset, because the land bleeds un- 
 der it; age, in its retirement, weeps over it ; and 
 men in every station, be their present character 
 and past services Avhat they may, are the victims 
 of its fury. Its influence is felt in the voluntary 
 associations of men, that are formed for the purpose 
 of doing good ; in the corporations for business and 
 profit ; in the institutions of learning, and in the 
 church of God. It has more power in our national 
 and state councils, than any other principle of ac- 
 tion. Men are elevated to the highest oHice, and 
 lugged into the lowest, purely for party purposes. 
 Where offices are wanting to subserve these ends, 
 they are created ; and where they are too many, 
 are abolished. Most, if not all the measures of the 
 government are devised and adopted with a view 
 to party interests ; and the very laws of the land 
 which ought always to be framed under solemn 
 and religious responsibility, are enacted and re- 
 pealed to subserve the same ends. 
 
 Not a few, who are believed to be men of prin- 
 ciple on other subjects, seem to take leave of their 
 consciences the moment they throw tliciiiselves 
 within the sphere of political agitation. Witli ievv 
 exceptions, they are chained to their party, and no 
 sense even of their sacred religion dissolves the 
 bond. There are mournful defections from the law 
 of God, in professedly good men of both political 
 schools; and they have been a grief of heart to the 
 church, and a stumbJiDg-block to the world. It is 
 difficult to speak of the paramount influence of 
 
8 
 
 this party zeal in good men. It is a sort of moral 
 hallucination. There are those who seem to be in- 
 fatuated by it ; nor is it possible for us to look upon 
 this spirit of party, except as a dark cloud in our 
 horizon, and one which so overspreads our sky as 
 to fill us with apprehension. 
 
 2. Another indication of danger is the pervading 
 influence of immoral principle. 
 
 Moral principle is the same thing everywhere. 
 It has its standard, and it is unchanging; it has its 
 laws, and they have weight and importance enough 
 to be controlling. It is not one thing in the Bible 
 and another in the Statute Book ; one thing in the 
 Church, and another in the State; one thing in tlie 
 Pulpit, and another in the Senate Chamber. It is 
 the least fickle, and the most unchanging thing in 
 the world. In the closet and at the ballot box, 
 in the family and on the exchange, in ofiice and out 
 of office, it is the same immovable principle. Time, 
 place and circumstances cannot alter it. Gold can- 
 not bribe it ; poverty cannot ensnare it ; bankruptcy 
 can never make it bankrupt. It is not like a vane 
 upon the top of a spire, for the purpose of showing 
 which way the wind blows ; but like the needle, 
 notwithstanding the agitations of the storm, always 
 reposing in that point wiiere truth and duty exert 
 their magnet power. In matters of indiflerence, it 
 is all things to all men ; while on every question of 
 truth and rectitude, nothing moves it from its 
 straightforward course. Obloquy aims its en- 
 venomed shafts at it, but it neither stops nor 
 tires. In the even and unruffled course of events, 
 
it is tranquil ; and if amid more unequal and 
 convulsing scenes it frowns and is agitated, it 
 is because it is summoning its strength for con. 
 flict. Hope cannot make it pliable ; test it as it 
 will, fear does but evince its firmness ; and all 
 human changes make not half the impression upon 
 it which the boisterous sea makes upon the rocky 
 shore. 
 
 In political, as well as moral science, moral 
 principle is the love of right; the pursuit of truth 
 and duty, aiming at the public weal, in distinction 
 from individual, or local interests. Every man 
 knows what it is, because he has a conscience. It 
 is not serving one's self by serving the State ; but it 
 is serving the State irrespective of one's self, and it 
 may be in opposition to its acknowledged claims. 
 It is a principle of amazing power. Other princi- 
 ples of action there are, strong and impassioned, but 
 this is the highest and most impelling that ever 
 swayed the human bosom, because it finds its mo- 
 tives and sanction in the indulgence and expression 
 of the purest and loftiest affections, and its repose 
 in an approving conscience and an approving God. 
 It is deeply to be regretted, that it is so much easier 
 to tell what it is than where it is. Noble exemplifi- 
 cations of it were seen in the early periods of our 
 history — more noble than have been seen since the 
 day when Moses interceded for the nation of Israel, 
 even though his own name were blotted out and 
 forgotten among men. But would not the eye be- 
 come wearied in searching for them in the modern 
 annals of the American people? 
 
10 
 
 If we look to public stations, where shall 
 our thoughts rest for examples of high morality 1 
 Tested by a self-sacrificing virtue, how few are 
 there that have occupied, or now occupy them, who 
 are influenced either by the love of God or man ! 
 We may not hope to be a prosperous people, until 
 we see a higher tone of moral sentiment imbuing 
 our national and state councils, commanding the 
 respect of the community, and sending down its 
 influence upon all classes of men. When we see 
 men occupying public stations, who regard the Holy 
 Scriptures with contempt ; trample under their feet 
 the divine institutions ; and in their mutual inter- 
 course, in halls consecrated to rectitude and cour- 
 tesy, act a part that would have disgraced a Vandal 
 age ; we cannot but feel some concern, at least, for 
 the moral virtue of the community. Irreligion, 
 immorality, and bad manners, can scarcely fail to 
 contaminate the people, when the contagion de- 
 scends from such sources. Iniquity in every form 
 always maintains a descending progress. Its natu- 
 ral course is downward. liike the foul miasma, 
 which first evaporates from low and impure 
 grounds and then ascends to spread itself along 
 the mountain side, it first ascends from the peo- 
 ple to their legislators, and afterwards descends 
 in condensed malignity from legislators to the peo- 
 ple. The truth on this subject is too humilia- 
 ting to be told. Low abuse becomes not high- 
 minded men. Malignant and bloody threatening 
 ill befits the councils of wisdom. The sacred 
 chambers, where the fate of millions hangs in sus- 
 
11 
 
 pense, are not the arena for profane revilings, per- 
 sonal encounter and gladiatorial show. 
 
 If from the private influence of men in public 
 stations, we turn to the acts of legislative bodies 
 themselves, we see evils too notorious to be denied, 
 and too gross to be palliated. In times of excite- 
 ment on Questions of great public interest, men can 
 be more safely trusted almost anywhere than in 
 large deliberative bodies. Those who would recoil 
 from dishonour and dishonesty in their individual 
 capacity, are too often induced to dismiss this del- 
 icacy when their responsibilities become thus 
 merged. We have not lived to see a human legis- 
 lature decide that thei'e is no God ; but we have 
 seen more than one decide, that his laws are of no 
 binding force. Never was a law more clearly re- 
 vealed, or of more universal obligation, than the 
 law which denounces death to the murderer. When 
 a state, solemnly and by legal enactment, arrays 
 itself before the world against this high authority, it 
 manifests an intrepidity which is indicative of any 
 thing, rather than moral principle, and which it will 
 one day bewail. Laws that siiield the guilty cannot 
 protect the innocent. The late Sir James Mcintosh, 
 than whom no judge was ever more tender of hu- 
 man life, and who has unhappily been referred to 
 as advocating the abolition of all capital punish- 
 ments, remarks, concerning the morals of India, 
 that " such is its disregard for the lives of its 
 subjects, that they do not think it worth their while 
 to punish a murderer." We may look with a jealous 
 eye upon the man who has so little regard to hu- 
 
12 
 
 man life as to desire the murderer to live. It is the 
 pretence of compassion, and dwells not in the bo- 
 som of that Being who is the " great and essential 
 charity." 
 
 What shall be thought, also, of the modern doc- 
 trine of repudiation, adopted by some of the states 
 of this Union, and advocated by so many of the 
 people 1 It is no marvel, that in the judgment of the 
 nations, American is no better than "Punic faith." 
 It speaks well for the civilized world, that our for- 
 eign ambassadors are put to shame, and that our 
 citizens in other lands would fain pass under ano- 
 ther name. Had our forefathers been told that the 
 time would so soon come, when any of the states of 
 this confederation would, by recorded resolutions, 
 disavow their own pecuniary engagements, the blush 
 of shame would have covered their faces for this 
 flagrant injustice, this horrid disgrace of their apos- 
 tate descendants. 
 
 Turn now to the character of some portions of 
 the public press. That the free expression of pub- 
 lic sentiment is necessary to the existence of liberty, 
 is an axiom too plain to require either proof or illus- 
 tration. Our own goveriunent has wisely adopted 
 the policy of extending the privileges of the press to 
 the last limits that may comport with individual 
 rights and the public safety. We have no Star Cham- 
 ber, no High Commission Court, no Inquisition to 
 prevent the expression, or suppress the influence of 
 public opinion. The character of the press in this 
 land is therefore no false exponent of its moral 
 principles. This is specially true of the political 
 
13 
 
 and newspaper press, because this is emphatically 
 the press of the people. The people read it, sup- 
 port it, and by it their views are both formed 
 and expressed. And who does not see, that, to a 
 mournful extent, it is under a bad and immoral di- 
 rection ; and does more to bring into contempt and 
 ridicule the Word of God, to profane the Sabbath 
 and cause it to be profaned, to conduct the young 
 and the old to scenes of pollution and shame, and 
 to corrupt and demoralize the community, even 
 than the vilest productions that ever came from 
 the pen of Voltaire, or Thomas Paine 1 While it 
 would be no proof of candour, indiscriminately to 
 denounce it, it would be blindness, not to discover 
 the rashness, the precipitancy, the unguarded, and, 
 I am sorry to say, the disorganizing influence some- 
 times issuing even from those portions of it we 
 would most commend. The thought does not al- 
 ways seem to be present to the minds of those who 
 preside over the newspaper press, that they are ex- 
 erting a weighty influence in forming the character 
 of the nation, and wielding an engine of unmea- 
 sured power, either for weal, or for wo. 
 
 Nor has tiie combined influence of such causes 
 as these been exerted without the most deleterious 
 effect. We cannot look abroad upon the ijreat 
 community of business without seeing most melan- 
 choly instances of defection from moral virtue. — 
 Men do wrong and defraud, not only with im- 
 punity, but almost without dishonour. Defalca- 
 tions in public officers and monied institutions come 
 crowding upon us week after week, and day after 
 
 2 
 
14 
 
 day, and are so numerous that it is no easy mat- 
 ter to find honest men enough in whom the com- 
 munity has confidence, and to whom great and im- 
 portant interests may be confided. Men are no 
 longer trusted than they are tried ; and even what 
 has been considered tried integrity has not always 
 proved invuhierable. Promises scarcely excite the 
 expectation that they will be fulfilled. There is 
 no such thing as mutual confidence. Distrust and 
 suspicion so pervade the land, that it is well nigh 
 impossible even to equalize its currency. Deceit 
 and dishonesty have become so common that they 
 are looked for ; and the intercourse between man 
 and man, and one remote part of the land and an- 
 other, is governed by this horrible jealousy. And 
 what is worse, men professing godliness have not 
 been altogether guiltless in this matter, nor always 
 been sensible that sterling integrity is one of the 
 brightest adornments of the Christian character. 
 
 I am not insensible that this is a dark and mel- 
 ancholy survey. We are proud of ourlnstitutions ; 
 but our Institutions will not long remain what they 
 are unless the people become better. The unhap- 
 py consequences of such a state of things, if not 
 seasonably arrested, may be easily foreseen. Let 
 this want of moral principle be continued a little 
 longer, and a little farther extended, and we shall 
 see property depreciate, because neither individual 
 integrity, nor the laws of the land afford it anv ade- 
 quate protection. We shall see the unfortunate de- 
 pressed, because they have no way of regaining pub- 
 lic confidence; the nerves of honourable industry 
 
15 
 
 paralyzed; the rich hoarding their reiiiaiiiinj;- 
 treasures and locking them up from tlie poor ; and 
 the poor arrayed against the rich, because they 
 are driven to desperation. Men will become unso- 
 cial and sellish, malignant anil cruel. JMonied in- 
 stitutions will languish; domestic alliances will 
 be few ; and crime will be multiplied. Power 
 will become right, and law and liberty will be 
 trodden down in the streets. The nation will be 
 " bankrupt in fortune and in fame ;" and she that 
 " was princess among the provinces shall become 
 tributary." 
 
 With this want of moral principle, there is, 
 3. A growing spirit of insubordination. 
 The necessity of civil government is founded in 
 the moral corruption of man. Such are the natu- 
 ral and strong tendencies of the human mind to 
 evil, that no community is safe without a system of 
 well-defmed and legalized checks on human conduct- 
 To say nothing of the material, the entire intel- 
 lectual universe is a governed universe. It has its 
 Head, its subjects, its laws, its rewards and pen- 
 alties. If we look to celestial existencies, there is 
 a difference in natural endowments, a distinction in 
 character and condition, by which one class is su- 
 perior to another. The harmony, beauty, and hap- 
 piness of their social relations depend upon their 
 due and cheerful subordination. It is the same in 
 this lower world — running through all the grada- 
 tions of its social existence, from the family to the 
 village, from the village to the state. No commu- 
 nity can live without subjection to the " powers 
 
16 
 
 that be." Their mutual relations forbid it; their 
 natural and relative inequality forbid it; and the 
 Supreme Lawgiver has made this subjection a sol- 
 emn and religious duty. 
 
 There may be, and doubtless is a point beyond 
 which submission to oppressive and tyrannical gov- 
 ernments may not be extended, and where power 
 is so unreasonable and despotic as to justify revolt 
 and revolution. Though the most weighty respon- 
 sibility rests upon a people in deciding upon this 
 fearful crisis, it has existed, and may exist again. 
 ''Hazardous as the regimen is, the body politic may 
 be so disordered in its functions, as to be con- 
 strained to resort to it." And when such a crisis 
 comes, and patient recourse to legal remedies is 
 had in vain, and further remonstrance is useless, a 
 good man may bare his bosom to the shock, and re- 
 sist unto blood. 
 
 But such an exigency can rarely if ever exist in 
 this land. Our tendencies are all on the other side 
 of the question ; and make a powerful appeal to 
 our honour inbehalf of a respectful obedience to the 
 laws. There are peculiar claims on us for subor- 
 dination to our constituted authorities, in the very 
 freedom of our political Institutions. Our rulers 
 are our own, because we choose them. Our laws 
 are our own, because we make them ; and our 
 Courts of Judicature arc our own, because we ap- 
 point them. We are therefore bound to subordina- 
 tion by solemn compact. By the act of putting 
 our rulers into power, we put ourselves out of pow- 
 er; by making our own laws, we bind ourselves to 
 
17 
 
 be subject to law; and by appointing one class of 
 men to be the exclusive expounders, and another 
 the exclusive executors of the law, we not only dis- 
 claim these high trusts, but pledge ourselves to be 
 dutiful to those to whom they are committed. In- 
 subordination is far more criminal in this land, than 
 in lands where power is wrested from the people, 
 rather than conferred by them, and more danger- 
 ous, because it is more criminal. 
 
 Thus far in the history of nations, the great con- 
 test has, for the most part, had respect to the royal 
 prerogatives and the rights of the people. The 
 American States have ever been the advocates of 
 popular rights, in opposition to the high claims of 
 men in power. Our fathers suffered and bled in 
 defence of this great political truth ; and we our- 
 selves have often listened to the story of its tri- 
 umphs, and chanted them at the holiest altars. 
 We reproach no man for these generous sentiments, 
 because they are our own, and because we hope 
 the time may never come when we may not express 
 our attachment to them, in perfect consistency 
 with our principles of subordination to law and go- 
 vernment. But unhappily, men there are, who, 
 while they are the uncompromising opposers of 
 all needless restraints upon natural liberty, some- 
 times call in question those that are needful. It is 
 an humbling and an alarming fact, that a uniform 
 and rigorous government is in bad repute with the 
 people. Insubordination is one of the traits of the 
 American character. Scenes have taken place un- 
 der our own observation, and in others of our large 
 
 2* 
 
18 
 
 cities, in which resistance to lawful authority has 
 originated in the most trivial causes, and has been 
 fostered and perpetuated, sometimes by local inter- 
 ests, sometimes by differences of political sentiment, 
 and sometimes by questions touching the theory 
 of moral obligation. Hence the clamour about the 
 rights of man, as paramount to all constitutions 
 and compacts. Hence the tumultuous conventions 
 sitting in judgment upon the laws, and resolving on 
 disobedience. Hence the arraignment and abuse of 
 courts of justice. Hence the riots that have called 
 forth the power of the civil arm. Hence the angry 
 controversy about State Rights in one quarter, and 
 the agitating question of Slavery in another; both 
 of them menacing revolution and civil war. Hence, 
 on the one hand, the bold assumption of the power 
 of the law by an infuriated mob, and the illegal 
 execution of men for crimes of which they were 
 never convicted ; and on the other, the attempts to 
 bribe and intimidate the high functionaries of the 
 law from executing its penalties after legal sen- 
 tence and conviction. And all this too, without 
 penalty, and almost without rebuke. Hence the 
 clamours of the populace for redress from alleged 
 evils by illegal measures, and the recent attempt, 
 not without rapine and blood, in one of the states, 
 to introduce a new order of things in its govern- 
 ment, without regard to constitutional remedies. 
 Hence the organized system of opposition to all civil 
 authority, under the form of rabid Mormonism, 
 everywhere preaching sedition, though baptized 
 with the Christian name. And hence too, the spirit 
 
19 
 
 of misrule in the Church of God, and that turmoil 
 which is excited by her discipline, and that want 
 of respect to her decisions which makes her the 
 laughing-stock of the world. 
 
 These things all flow from one common source, 
 and are part and parcel of that unhinging system 
 which looses the bonds of public authority. The 
 germ of this factious spirit may perhaps be found 
 farther back than all are willing to acknowledge. 
 It is the natural, though unhealthy growth of our 
 free institutions, and is A^ery easily engrafted upon 
 them. It is not our courts and officers of justice 
 alone that are embarrassed by it, but every parent, 
 every teacher, every master mechanic, and every 
 seminary of learning. The bonds of authority 
 hang loosely around the rising generation, and little 
 countenance is given to a rigorous discipline in any 
 department of human life. Age, however venerable, 
 is not respected, and few " rise up before the face of 
 the old man." The absurd doctrine of liberty and 
 equality has been so often instilled into the youth- 
 ful mind, that the first act of revolt from parental 
 government entitles a boy of eighteen to a standing 
 among men of spirit and character ; and the first 
 contemptuous, declamatory avowal of opposition 
 to good laws, and the most flagrant violation of 
 the precept, " Thou shalt not speak evil of the ruler 
 of thy people," is a passport to political advance- 
 ment. It is surprising to see how soon the love of 
 liberty has degenerated into the spirit of insubor- 
 dination. No, it is not surprising; I recall the words. 
 Should it surprise us, that children who are taught 
 
20 
 
 from their boyhood to aim at power, and to look 
 to the chair of magistracy, should, in process of 
 time, find it no difficult matter to persuade them- 
 selves that they liave as much right to govern, as 
 to be governed ? Should it surprise us, that when 
 you tell men that inequality and subordination are 
 doctrines of despots, and that civil power is invest- 
 ed in every individual because he is one of the 
 people, they are not long in coming to the con- 
 clusion that one man has as much right to be the 
 judge of the laws, or the ruler of the nation, as 
 another'? Multitudes are just foolish enough to 
 believe, that civil liberty, so far from being subor- 
 dination to good laws, impartially executed, is ex- 
 emption from the restraints of all law ; and that 
 so far from being a possible thing to be a loyal sub- 
 ject and yet be free, it is impossible to be free and 
 yet be a loyal subject. 
 
 We tremble for the country when its loyalty 
 trembles. We deplore nothing so much as one of 
 those fearful crises created by days of trial. Of all 
 nations on the earth, our internal peace depends 
 upon our prosperity. While the American people 
 would meet the fury of an external foe with a uni- 
 ted and undaunted spirit, and stand " shoulder to 
 shoulder" on the field of battle ; there are turbulent 
 spirits among us, who are the fit tools of faction 
 the moment the day arrives when, by protracted 
 internal embarrassments, they persuade themselves 
 that as they have nothing to lose, so they may have 
 much to gain by assailing the pillai's of the gov- 
 ernment. Far distant be that day ! This disloyal 
 
21 
 
 spirit is the rock on which the Republic is in dan- 
 ger of being shipwrecked. It is but yesterday, and 
 she grazed upon its projecting ledges; and even 
 now, though thrown ofl" by a favouring tide, we 
 feel her heaving and staggering in the fierce eddy 
 of its angry waters. 
 I will add, 
 
 4. Another ground of apprehension to this land 
 is the intluence of the Papal power. 
 
 Facts are stubborn things; and facts have 
 transpired in the midst of ourselves and in other 
 lands, with regard to the designs of Papal Konie, 
 which furnish to all the friends of Protestant free- 
 dom in these States, powerful incentives of alarm 
 and vigilance. I say nothing now of the religious 
 doctrines and rites of the Papal church, Antichrist 
 as it is, and ruinous as they are to the souls of men. 
 I speak of it simply as a system destructive of civil 
 liberty. 
 
 The two great contending powers in the world 
 have long been the Papal Hierarchy, and the King- 
 doms and States of Protestantism. Such is the 
 great contest at the present day. In some respects 
 Rome has greatly the advantage, in every stage of 
 this controversy, because she is able to turn to good 
 account the worst passions of men, and at the same 
 time to become the keeper of their consciences. 
 Among the mass of human society also, she has lit- 
 tle to contend with, because she finds them much 
 as she desires to keep them, ignorant, abject, and 
 enslaved. While on the other hand. Protestantism 
 makes no compromise with wickedness, and instead 
 
22 
 
 of being satisfied with human servitude, rises only 
 as she bears up with her the enshived nations, and 
 in every step of her progress, is actually struggling 
 with the liberties of the world upon her shoulders. 
 With all these disadvantages, Protestantism 
 has been on the advance, and until within a few 
 years. Papacy has been on the decline. Men are 
 rational, and the time must come when they will 
 think and examine for themselves. Protestantism 
 rests its claims on argument; while Rome, for a 
 long period, has abandoned the field of fair discus- 
 sion, and, because she has neither argument nor 
 arms to sustain her, has recourse only to the pains 
 and penalties of her discipline, and ventures into 
 the field only under the covered way of her Propa- 
 ganda. Protestantism, therefore, has made rapid 
 strides within the last hundred years. Besides re- 
 taining the whole of Europe north of the Baltic — 
 for there is not a Romish priest in Norway or Den- 
 mark, and but two in Sweden ;■ — besides maintain- 
 ing its overpowering supremacy in Germany, the 
 Low Countries, and Switzerland, and being toler- 
 ated in Belgium and France ; it has pushed its con-, 
 quests into this New World, and through the com- 
 bined literature, enterprise, liberty and commerce 
 of the United Kingdoms of Great Britain and Ire- 
 land, and those of our own land, exerts a com- 
 manding influence on the civil liberties of man- 
 kind. Our own days have been the witnesses 
 of her triumphs, and the degradation of her foe. 
 We ourselves have seen the Inquisition abolished ; 
 Italy conquered, Rome itself plundered and im- 
 
23 
 
 poverished, and, strange to say, her presumptuous , 
 Pontiff so divested of all temporal power that the 
 kings of the earth no longer tremble at the thunder 
 of the Seven Hills. 
 
 In view of facts like these, not a few have 
 eagerly, and perhaps prematurely come to the con- 
 clusion, that Rome has " received her deadly 
 wound," and that the time is at hand when both 
 " the Beast and the False Prophet shall go to- 
 gether into perdition." The prophecies of Daniel, 
 it appears to me, do indeed teach us that no Infi- 
 del, or Pagan, or Antichristian power is ever again 
 to rule over the earth. But while I rejoice in this 
 confidence, I have yet to see that there remains not 
 a severe and bitter conflict of the Protestant na- 
 tions with Rome. It is undoubtedly a fact, that in 
 all the Roman Catholic countries, except Italy and 
 Spain, the Papal power is on the advance. Pro- 
 fessed Protestants of loose and immoral character 
 are becoming Catholics ; while conversions to the 
 Roman church are taking place among that anom- 
 alous multitude who were thrown off from it by the 
 influence of Voltaire and the infidelity of the German 
 Illuminati. Tliere is also more attachment to the 
 Catholic church among her own members than 
 there was twenty years ago. As a body of men 
 throughout the world, they have been called on by 
 the Pope to offer special prayers in behalf of Pro- 
 testant countries; and extensive organizations of 
 young men have recently been formed in Europe 
 for more systematic effort for the conversion of 
 the young. Romanism has increasing influence 
 
24 
 
 • with the government in Catholic countries ; and 
 subordinate magistrates are more frequently and 
 boldly throwing obstacles in the way of Protest- 
 antism. It is well ascertained, that the Catholics 
 are resolved on establishing a mission in every 
 part of the world where the Protestants have gone 
 before them, and are giving more to the cause of 
 missions than they have for a long time been wont 
 to bestow. In Belgium the whole system of public 
 schools is now in the hands of the Catholics; while 
 in some of the cantons of Switzerland, they are be- 
 ginning to feel their strength, and to meditate plans 
 of revolution. In Britain, too, the Oxford heresy 
 has made such rapid strides toward Rome, that a 
 large body of the evangelical clergy are seriously 
 contemplating a secession from the Established 
 church ; while in this land where we dwell, pre- 
 lates of that church are not wanting who are the 
 bold advocates of some of the most obnoxious pre- 
 tensions of the Papal church. Nor is it any difficult 
 matter to predict what sort of influence a portion 
 of the Episcopal church in tiiese States will exert, 
 when the crisis comes on which the destinies of 
 Protestantism are suspended. 
 
 Nor is this all. While weakness and decay 
 are by no means so visible in the features of Rome 
 in the Eastern World, as they have been within 
 half a century, on this Western Continent she has 
 passed the period of her infancy and putting on the 
 vigour of manhood. Europe, groaning under an 
 overburdened, starving, and tumultuous popula- 
 tion, has already disgorged upon these shores such 
 
25 
 
 a flood of Catholic influence as to be felt in every 
 department of the government. And what is mar- 
 vellous to tell, though the principles and history of 
 Rome show her to be the most aristocratic commu- 
 nity in the world, she is here the passionate cham- 
 pion of liberty ; and though in her own land, she is 
 arrayed in scarlet, she here lays aside her robes for 
 the plain garb of republican simplicity. Hitherto 
 she has walked softly and silently, and aimed prin- 
 cipally at alluring the young. She has felt her 
 way, till she finds herself standing on solid ground ; 
 and now she is everywhere extending her institu- 
 tions, and boldly sending up her voice into our 
 legislative councils. 
 
 Especially has she fixed her eye upon that gar- 
 den of the world, the " Great West." The plains 
 of the Arno and the Tiber she is exchanging for 
 the prairies of the Missouri and the Mississippi ; and 
 for the native air of her own Pyrenees, Jura, and 
 Alps, she is breathing the atmosphere bounded by 
 the Alleghany and the Rocky Mountains. Through- 
 out all that fertile valley, the day of her powder is 
 just begun. She has avowed her purpose of pos- 
 sessing this promised land ; crowned heads and 
 powerful associations are in alliance with her in 
 this design ; the popular sentiment of the Catholic 
 nations falls in with it ; here her last struggle with 
 Protestantism is probably to be maintained, and the 
 last battle for freedom and the rights of man to be 
 fought. 
 
 We do not say that in these things the Catholics 
 are attempting any thing incompatible with their 
 
26 
 
 civil rights, as recognized by the American people. 
 And here is the secret of their strength, and our 
 danger. The laws of the land deny them nothing 
 as citizens; while what is cheerfully awarded to 
 them as citizens, they make use of only as Roman- 
 ists. Nay more. Not satisfied with the same civil 
 rights we ourselves enjoy, they are already claiming 
 immunities which the laws give to no other denom- 
 ination, and making these claims the rallying stand- 
 ard of their political influence. While we, as Pro- 
 testants, are exhausting our energies against one 
 another, theirs are concentrated in favor of Rome. 
 In the political dissensions of Protestants, Rome 
 even now holds the balance of power; and in the use 
 of the elective franchise, may decide every great po- 
 litical question, and almost upon her own terms. And 
 ■who can be so demented as to suppose that these 
 terms will not be available to the Roman See 1 
 Do any ask. Where is the danger of all this 1 T 
 can only say, the question surprises me. Are not 
 the liberties of the country put in jeopardy by a 
 community which affirms that the Pope possesses 
 the divine right of civil government ; that faith is 
 not to be kept with Protestants ; that a Protestant 
 cannot be witness ; and that the oath of allegiance to 
 any other power than the Romish Hierarchy is not 
 binding 1 These are principles which Rome 
 avows by the decrees of her Popes and Councils, 
 and which she has, I know not whether to say, the 
 weakness or the effrontery, to pronounce infalli- 
 ble. And because she pronounces them infallible, 
 they are paramount w ilh every Romanist, in what- 
 
27 
 
 ever land he is found. Believe it or not, as we 
 may, Papists will be found true to the doctrine of 
 infallibility. Any other doctrine is fatal to their 
 system. What were once the principles of t!)at 
 apostate community are now its principles, nor do 
 we need to be informed that they have ever proved 
 unfriendly to personal rights, and the equal admin- 
 istration of law and justice. We cannot be hood- 
 winked by smooth professions against the subtle 
 invasions of such political heresy. Human nature 
 is the same now which it always has been ; and so 
 is Popery. Principles are not such tame and inert 
 things as they are sometimes regarded ; they mould 
 the spirit, form the designs, control the conduct, and 
 constitute the character. You cannot separate 
 them from the man, any more than you can tear 
 asunder the man from himself We are greatly de- 
 ceived, if it is possible for a man to be a thorough 
 Papist, and, in any great conflict of civil liberty 
 with the Roman church, prove himself the friend of 
 freedom. Individual Catholics there have been in 
 the midst of us, whose hearty allegiance to the Papal 
 Hierarchy is more than doubtful, who have showed 
 themselves freemen ; and there are such in the 
 midst of us still. But as a class of men. Papists 
 are at the bidding of their Priests, and their 
 Priests at the bidding of Rome. 
 
 I once heard the question agitated by a compa- 
 ny of very intelligent men, whether the system of 
 caste in India, or the policy of Rome, were the mas- 
 ter-piece of the great adversary. And very prop- 
 erly, as it seemed to me, the question was decided 
 
28 
 
 in favor of Rome. The designs of Rome are not 
 limited to a single empire, but include the race un- 
 der every parallel of latitude, and every form of 
 government. Her stake is deep. Her game is high ; 
 and she is playing for nations. She spreads her 
 great drag-net over the marshes and miry places 
 of the earth, and gathers all manner of creeping 
 things; and then she throws it over crowns and 
 thrones. She aims chiefly at controlling human 
 governments. She has her spies at every Court, and 
 every University in Europe, and almost every 
 town of the Hanseatic Confederacy ; nor is there a 
 treaty, nor any measure of universal interest, but 
 she watches it with a jealous eye. 
 
 One access to power in this land she has, and 
 only one. And it is that avenue, w^hich like the 
 breach in the wall of Jerusalem discovered by Ti- 
 tus, invites the destroyer, and shows him a divided 
 people. The policy of Rome is the very machinery 
 which the demon of Party in the midst of us de- 
 sires, in order to bring about those gradual changes 
 in principle and legislation which will sti-ike a fa- 
 tal blow at our liberties. And though its influence 
 is gradual, it is strong. It is like the first movings 
 of the avalanche, and wo be to all beneath it. It 
 is first like the smoke, and then like tlie lava of its 
 own Vesuvius, burning over the rich and beautiful 
 soil, and leaving not a green spot for the blasted 
 trunk of freedom to stand upon. In a little while, 
 without a more concerted union of Protestant influ- 
 ence, the evil Ave prognosticate will have done its 
 work, There will be no antidote to the mischief. 
 
29 
 
 The thought and eloquence of the Senate Cham- 
 ber cannot arrest it; the Press cannot arrest it; 
 the Pulpit will be silenced ; and the Bible, as it 
 recently has been, Avill be consigned to the flames. 
 Nay, though it is adding lamentation upon lamen- 
 tation, the evil is in a measure even now done. — 
 A free people already accept their suffrages at the 
 altars of the Papacy, and the Empire State, so jeal- 
 ous of its own Clergy, pays its homage at St. Pe- 
 ter's. If we wake not Rome carries the day. The 
 Republic is lost. 
 
 Such are some of the dangers which threaten 
 the American people. Nor may we dwell any 
 longer on the dark shades of this sombre outline. 
 It will be a relief to your minds, as I am sure it is to 
 my own, to call your attention, 
 
 II. To the refuge from these dangers, and to 
 some of the grounds of hope for the nation, notwith- 
 standing these threatening evils. 
 
 On this part of our subject, I have no systems 
 of human policy, no counsels of human wisdom to 
 unfold. Creatures are of little account at such a 
 day as this. " Cursed is the man that trusteth in 
 man, and maketh flesh his arm." We shall not 
 find trees planted by the rivers of water, amid the 
 Iteath of the desert. The storm that lowers over 
 the land is not to be averted by the ingenuity, or 
 power of man. If the destruction of this nation 
 does not swell the catalogue of ruined Republics, 
 it will be because " God is our refuge and strength, 
 a very present help in trouble." We look around 
 us, and every day is a day of disappointment to 
 
 3* 
 
30 
 
 thousands. Human events are constantly taking a 
 new and unexpected turn ; and the man that 
 knows not, feels not, rejoices not that God is on the 
 throne, may see the hand of enchantment which 
 his imagination has depicted lighting up our pros- 
 pects, only inscribing our doom. And yet are 
 there indices to hope, hope in the God of nations, 
 because, 
 
 1. This great and good Being possesses all the 
 resources that are adequate to our security and ad- 
 vancement. 
 
 In a day, when so few think of God, and when 
 the high and mighty of this world forget that he 
 ruleth in the midst of the earth, it is an unutterable 
 consolation to know that no time and no place limits 
 his dominion. His ever Avakeful eye is upon every 
 change of human affairs ; and nothing is concealed 
 or undirected by him, that takes place among men, 
 or that is projected by the machinations of human 
 folly and wickedness. If a partisan spirit in- 
 flames the minds of the people ; if the land is threat- 
 ened with a deluge of immoral principles ; if turbu- 
 lence and faction roar around us like the Avaves of 
 the sea ; if unhallowed conspiracies, baptized with 
 the Christian name, menace our liberties ; it is with 
 Him to stay the flood, to still the tumult of the 
 people, to restrain the spirit of party, and to pre- 
 serve and perpetuate our dearest interests against 
 the encroachments of the intriguing foe. 
 
 Never, since the struggles of the Revolution, did 
 the American people more need the interposition of 
 almighty and benevolent Providence, than at the 
 
31 
 
 present day. The nation has reached a crisis in 
 "which she requires connnanding intellect to influ- 
 ence her counsels, and more commanding virtue to 
 concentrate her confidence. It is not at all improb- 
 able, from tlie signs of the times, that influences 
 hitherto unfelt are about to be exerted on our des- 
 tinies ; that old combinations are about to be dis- 
 solved, and new ones formed, and principles of 
 policy adopted that may unite this nov^^ disunited 
 republic in their true interests. And who, but 
 the God who is above us, is able to show us 
 what these true interests are, or amalgamate and 
 combine the jarring views, and more jarring pas- 
 sions of this great and free people? What measures 
 he will mercifully disclose we do not know ; it is 
 a relief to know that he is able to adopt those that 
 shall result in our security and honour. The ten 
 thousand springs of thought and action that are 
 now at work throughout this wide territory, may as 
 easily be arranged and directed by him to our good, 
 as the pliant willow is bent by the gentle breeze. 
 And if to the eye of reason this appears improbable, 
 there are other eyes to Avhich it is the only preven- 
 tive of our ruin. 
 
 2. With God alone are the means by which these 
 resources may be made available to the nation. 
 
 These means, in few Avords, are the moral virtue 
 of the people. The evils we fear can be counteracted 
 only by this influence ; nor is there but this refuge 
 from the ruin of our national character and hopes. 
 
 It can scarcely be necessary to say, that 
 it is vain to look for moral principle among any 
 
32 
 
 people, without religious principle. The character 
 that is essential to national prosperity is engrafted 
 upon the religion of the Bible. Nothing else can 
 govern the wayward mind, and impetuous passions 
 of the human heart. Free institutions cannot do it ; 
 a wholesome legislation cannot do it ; and no ad- 
 vanced state of the sciences and the arts can do it. 
 Free institutions are nothing but a curse where the 
 religion of the Bible is wanting. The best code of 
 laws is of little avail where there are not integrity 
 and virtue in the people to sustain them ; nor with- 
 out that virtue and integrity, is it possible for good 
 laws to be enacted. And we must be slow to learn, 
 if we have not seen that progress in arts and 
 sciences, unattended with religious influence, only 
 renders men more inventive in wickedness. Poli- 
 ticians have not been slow to appreciate the influ- 
 ence of false religions ; but, with few exceptions, 
 they have never given the religion of the Bible its 
 appropriate place. 
 
 In nations, as well as in men, moral virtue 
 is of divine original. But for the truth and 
 Spirit of God, it would find no access to the coun- 
 sels that control the destiny of nations, no resi- 
 dence in our world. Speculative atheism, and prac- 
 tical ungodliness, bad faith and bad morals are 
 everywhere rife, from men in power to meaner men, 
 where a community is not under the restraining, 
 subduing influence of the truth of God and the 
 Spirit of his grace. The God of heaven must give 
 these to the American people, else are they far bet- 
 ter fitted to be portioned out as the vassals of some 
 
33 
 
 feudal lord, than to be the responsible citizens of a 
 free government. 
 
 The American people, perhaps more than any 
 other nation, requires the strong grasp of religious 
 trutli. Tiiey are not as easily excited as some na- 
 tions, but they are exposed to strong and powerful 
 excitement. We cannot rely upon any safety valve 
 to let off the steam when once it is up. Our safety 
 lies in keeping down, and controlling the fires with- 
 in, or the colossal machinery will burst, and piece 
 after piece of the mighty fabric Avill fall. We are 
 just the people, fitted for revolutions of no common 
 kind, unless we are bound together into one great 
 brotherhood by the cords of heaven-descended truth 
 and a heaven-imparted love. 
 
 The hope of the American people therefore is in 
 the free and glorified course of God's truth ; dis- 
 tributed in the Bible, proclaimed from the pulpit, 
 published in an elevated and sanctified literature, far 
 off and near, and to all ages and orders of men. 
 It is in the lives of true men, pure men, honest 
 men, self-denying men, whose example and in- 
 fluence are more persuasive than all the eloquence 
 of the press, or the pulpit. It is in the piety of 
 churches and families, and in the purity and reli- 
 gious character of our public schools and colleges. 
 It is in the voice of truth and godliness uttered in 
 the halls of legislation, and revered on the bench 
 of justice. There is a power in the truth of God, 
 thus disseminated, and demonstrated thus, to re- 
 novate the nation. It " drops as the rain, and dis- 
 tils as the dew ; as the small rain upon the tender 
 
34 
 
 herb ; and as showers upon the grass." Like 
 the humid atmosphere of the Spring, it insinuates 
 itself into every tree, and plant, and leaf, and fila- 
 ment; and prepares it for the Sun of righteousness 
 when he rises with healing in his beams ; and like 
 the prophetic waters that went out from Jerusalem, 
 " giving life to every thing that moveth wherever 
 they come." 
 
 Heaven give us his truth and Spirit, and the land 
 is safe. The resources of his providence and grace 
 are then our own. We shall be the proper subjects 
 for freedom, and not only endure our liberties, but 
 beckon to distant lands to come and rest under 
 the shadow of our wings. 
 
 To make this hope more welcome, I remark, — 
 
 3. These resources, and these means, by which 
 they are made available, are controlled by prayer. 
 
 There are those who may smile when I utter 
 this thought. But we may not abandon our hopes 
 for the nation, for the sneers of men who have 
 never made the living God their refuge. 
 
 Scattered and divided to her own weakness 
 and shame, as the church is in this land ; called 
 by a thousand names, and the reproach and con- 
 tumely of the nation for her sectarian collisions 
 and mutual jealousies ; she, nevertheless, comprises 
 within her different compartments a great multi- 
 tude who fear God and love his Son. Were it but 
 for their own peace and comfort, in the present 
 aspect of the nation, they may well greet the in- 
 vitation, " Come, my people, enter into thy cham- 
 bers, and shut thy doors about thee ; hide thyself 
 
35 
 
 for a little season, until the indignation be over- 
 past." It is an vmutterable privilege to know that 
 our refuge is in God ; to retire from these external 
 commotions ; to be more with Him and less with 
 the world, until the storm is gone by. In days 
 when men's hearts " are failing them for fear," 
 there is a safety in this calm retreat which the 
 ephemeral convulsions of time cannot disturb. 
 
 But it is not to their own peace and comfort 
 alone, that this thought addresses itself Prayer 
 possesses untold power. It has been beautifully 
 said, " It moves the hand that moves the world." 
 It can accomplish any thing, because he who 
 hears and answers it can accomplish any thing. 
 It is omnipotent for good, because God is omni- 
 potent. The men of prayer cannot indeed form 
 the character of this land, and direct its policy as 
 they please ; they cannot reform its manners, nor 
 protect it against those internal causes of decay, 
 of such dark foreboding ; and they are equally 
 powerless to evangelize it by the omnipotence of 
 truth. But the only power in the universe that is 
 adequate to these results is accessible to their 
 humble and unwearied supplications. Sodom and 
 the cities of the plain might have remained to this 
 day, had they contained ten men of prayer. Israel 
 would have been blotted out from being a nation 
 on the day they bowed before the golden calf, but 
 for the prayers of a single man. But for the en- 
 treaties of her suppliant prince, Jerusalem had 
 been desolated by the destroying angel, centuries 
 before she was devoured by the Roman eagle, 
 
36 
 
 Nor let it be forgotten that the greatest moral re- 
 formation that ever took place among men, and 
 one that triumphed over the darkness of paganism, 
 the philosophy of the schools, and the opposing 
 power of human governments, and that is destined 
 to renovate the race ; began in the prayers of one 
 hundred and twenty persons, once assembled in an 
 upper chamber in the capital of Judea. 
 
 It is no easy matter to ruin a country protected 
 by prayer. France and Britain have now, and long 
 have had, sins enough upon their governments, to 
 have sunk them both like a millstone into the sea, 
 but for the supplications of a chosen people in the 
 midst of them. So has it been with this land. 
 Judgments that were even at our doors, within 
 your recollection and mine, have been often de- 
 layed by the intercessions of God's people, and by 
 those days of prayer when the nation bowed in 
 sackcloth, and her priests stood between the porch 
 and the altar, and cried, " Spare thy people, O 
 God, and give not thine heritage to reproach." 
 
 Our fathers called upon God and he heard 
 them. Their early history is full of affecting in- 
 stances of the power of prayer. When they were 
 hungry, they looked to Him who hears the ravens 
 when they cry, and He fed them. They buried 
 the tomahawk ; they quenched the flames ; they 
 staid the floods by prayer. They vanquished 
 armies, and made proud Sachems tremble on their 
 thrones. They unlocked the heavens to the wonder 
 of the adoring savage, who turned from tlie vani- 
 ties of the heathen to Him who maketh rain. And 
 
37 
 
 what is morC) they subdued the pride and arro- 
 gancyof man, and controlled his spirit, and chang- 
 ed his counsels by prayer. Prayer can accomplish 
 for this land, what the wisdom of her statesmen 
 and the prowess of her arms can never accomplish. 
 " The foolishness of God is wiser than men, and 
 the weakness of God is stronger than men." Prayer 
 made the nation what it was in the zenith of her 
 prosperity; and it must still have a place, among 
 those great moral causes which fix the destiny of 
 nations, in restoring and perpetuating its depare d 
 glory. 
 
 Were this the " Age of Prayer," it would not be 
 an age of such foreboding. Were every closet and 
 every domestic altar, every sanctuary, and the ten 
 thousand circles for prayer throughout the church- 
 es of every name, engaged in intercessions for the 
 land we love ; our fears would be tranquillized, and 
 our hopes have unwonted cheerfulness and joy. 
 The shadow of the cloud would still coA^er us by 
 day, and the pillar of fire by night would direct our 
 course. It is because the God of heaven has a peo- 
 ple here whom he lives to protect and love, that we 
 still have a name and a place on the earth. And if 
 this agitated and disheartened nation should be suf- 
 ficiently awake to her dangers and her hopes to be 
 brought to their knees, all will be well. 
 
 I may not close without adding another thought, 
 and one which gives interest and emphasis to all 
 that has been uttered. It is, 
 
 4. That in the development of his purposes 
 thus far toward the American people, there are rea- 
 
 4 
 
38 
 
 sons for the hope that the God of heaven will not 
 abandon us. 
 
 I do not stand in this place as the apologist for my 
 country's sins. I know that she deserves to be aban- 
 doned to the unnatural crime of being the author of 
 her own destruction, and lamenting, too late, the 
 fearful deeds of guilt and horror which her own 
 hands have perpetrated. Should we be more se- 
 verely chastised than we have been, we may well 
 accept the punishment of our iniquity in uncom- 
 plaining silence ; and should we fall under the 
 exterminating sentence of the avenging Deity, it 
 would be but another lesson to the world, that " ver- 
 ily there is a God that judgeth in the earth." 
 There maybe those who anticipate such a fall; 
 but with all my fears, and notwithstanding the 
 dangers which menace such a disaster, my own 
 bosom is slow to sympathize with these trembling 
 apprehensions. 
 
 The providence of God planted in this New 
 World a noble vine. He " sifted three kingdoms, 
 that he might sow the American wilderness with the 
 choicest wheat." There was nothing fortuitous in 
 the early settlement of the American colonies; but 
 every thing that indicated, on the part of a benevo- 
 lent Providence, a far-reaching design. In the attach- 
 ment of the noble men engaged in this enterprise to 
 the great principles of civil and religious liberty; for 
 their intelligence, learning and piety, it would be dif- 
 ficult to find their equals in the same number of men 
 among their descendants. It was not a nursling, 
 that was transplanted on these shores, a feeble scion, 
 
39 
 
 but a full grown tree ; and though the clouds have 
 gathered above it, and its branches have been often 
 scathed by the storm, the tears of men watered it, 
 it was nurtured by the prayers of the holy, and 
 blood, of which the w^orld was not worthy, enrich- 
 ed its roots as they struck deep into the rocky 
 soil. Tell me, ye sons and daughters of the Pil- 
 grims, if, even now, when the tempest lowers, the 
 decree is not written in heaven, " Destroy it not, 
 for a blessing is in it T' 
 
 The prosperity of the American people has 
 also, with a few short intermissions, been unexam- 
 pled. Scarcely a hundred years have passed away, 
 since France and Britain claimed the possession of 
 the North American Continent, while within a much 
 shorter period, the larger half of these United States 
 was the uninvaded habitation of savage men. — 
 But the dense forest is now covered over with 
 the abodes of wealth and splendor ; and a 
 large and growing empire, studded with the 
 lights of religion and science, takes the place of 
 the benighted and retiring tribes of Paganism, who 
 have left a land emulating in its resources the 
 richest poi'tions of the older hemisphere, and com- 
 prising a population of nearly twenty millions of 
 freemen. 
 
 The apparent objects of our existence as a 
 nation, have also for the most part stood abreast 
 withour prosperity. Here the oppressed of every 
 land have found a home, where they have en- 
 joyed the rewards of honest industry, the allure- 
 ments of knowledge, and the protection of law. 
 
40 
 
 The English Dissenter, the Scottish Covenanter, 
 and the polished Huguenot, chased by edicts 
 that shed blood to the horses' bridles, have here 
 reposed in fearless tranquillity, and transmitted 
 the savour of their honoured name to a long line 
 of honoured descendants. And here too, the out- 
 cast Jew, of whom the God of Abraham has said, 
 " I will undo all that afflict thee," has found, 
 what no nation on the earth besides gives 
 him, unobstructed access to every civil immuni- 
 ty and religious privilege, and, if a native citizen, 
 to the highest offices in the gift of the people. — 
 Here the pure and undefiled religion of the cross 
 has been established, and its sacred institutions 
 honoured by law, in distinction from every form of 
 Paganism, Mohammedanism, and the national and 
 temporary ritual of the Levitical Code. Here the 
 Holy Spirit has been largely and frequently poured 
 from on high : and from this young world, as 
 one of the selected centres of light and love, the an- 
 gel having the everlasting go&pel to preach to them 
 that dwell on the earth has gone forth to almost 
 every unevangelized land. 
 
 Throughout all our history, too, there have been 
 such special interpositions of the divine power and 
 goodness, as have not only been the subject of 
 grateful admiration to ourselves, but the wonder of 
 the observant nations. Many a time have we been 
 in great perplexity and alarm. The rivers where we 
 have bathed in our boyhood, and the green glades 
 which we have trodden in earlier years, have been 
 the scenes of terrific collisions with the inefciless, 
 
41 
 
 savages of the desert ; and though the faith of the 
 nation is far from being preserved pure and untar- 
 nished toward their descendants, these scenes have 
 passed away, and the war-whoop sounds its battle 
 cry no more. We have also been conducted Avith 
 safety and honour through one war with France, 
 and two with Great Britain, in one of which the 
 inequality of the parties was such as gave us no 
 hope of success. At the commencement of this 
 conflict, we had neither an organized regiment, nor 
 a fortified town, nor a ship of war, nor money, nor 
 arms, nor military stores. The researches of Brit- 
 ish literature and science, the extent of her com- 
 merce, the wisdom of her counsels, and her diplo- 
 matic skill, her abundant wealth, her far-famed 
 jurisprudence, and the extent of her dominions, 
 gave her the most enviable pre-eminence, and 
 made her the terror of Europe. Such was her 
 prowess in arms, that she had never been con- 
 quered in a single war since the days of William 
 the Norman. But the bitter conflict was sustained 
 for seven long years ; two entire armies of the ene- 
 my captured, and our Independence achieved. And 
 if, in looking back upon our triumph, we are tempt- 
 ed to give way to the thought, that it encircles the 
 brow of this infant Republic with a more verdant 
 wreath than ever entwined the helmet of her ex- 
 acting foe in the proudest days of Marlborough, or 
 Wellington, we may not withhold the honour from 
 Him who ruleth among the children of men, and 
 by this great event, destined the American people 
 
 to an enduring place among the nations. He 
 
 4* 
 
42 
 
 "turned our captivity as the streams of the south;" 
 and has not only given us honour and renown, but 
 extorted them even from the lips of our enemies. 
 It is but little more than two centuries since our 
 fathers found a home in this western wilderness ; 
 and now Britain herself has acknowledged before 
 the world, that " their children constitute the most 
 intelligent, and the most Christian Republic in the 
 world." 
 
 Nor ought it to be forgotten that the providence 
 of God has often interposed when we were threat- 
 ened with destruction from causes within ourselves. 
 Scarcely were the struggles of the Revolution over, 
 and the smoke of its burning disappeared in a clear 
 sky, when internal dissensions threatened us with 
 deeper horrors. Difficulties presented themselves 
 in the organization of our Federal Government. 
 The most powerful minds in the land were brought 
 into anxious collision, and conflicting interests 
 seemed for a while to forbid the hope that we 
 should ever be a united people. And many, a 
 time, too, since this great question was amicably 
 determined, we have been exposed to all the hor- 
 rors of a civil war, and but for an invisible guard- 
 ianship, " blood had touched blood." "^ -^ was a 
 period in our history, also, when infidv [ a-eat- 
 ened to overwhelm us, and the false and latitudina- 
 rian philosophy of Europe seemed about to lay 
 waste the superstructure which liad been reared for 
 distant generations, But the God of our fathers 
 bowed his heavens, and by the remarkable inter- 
 position of his Spirit, lifted up a standard against 
 
43 
 
 the enemy. And since our own times, a foe scarce- 
 ly less to be dreaded, has secretly, and with almost 
 I'esistless power, been undermining the foundations 
 of our prosperity. The time was, when the nation 
 seemed to be becoming a nation of drunkards. In- 
 temperance was swallowing us up in its consuming 
 flood. Its streams flowed ; its fires raged, and were 
 burning over the land. But the God of heaven 
 had decreed that Ave should not so soon become a 
 lo.st nation. The Temperance Reformation is a 
 movement unexampled in the history of the world ; 
 and in the view of the most enlightened nations, 
 does the country greater honour than all her vic- 
 tories. 
 
 And what means the clarion sound of that sil- 
 ver trumpet, which the men of peace have just 
 blown through the length and breadth of two great 
 Christian nations, filling every generous and be- 
 nevolent bosom with joy 1 We had trembled in 
 apprehension of a conflict that would have made 
 havoc of the lives of men ; that would have blight- 
 ed the fruits of industry ; that would have arrested 
 the progress of knowledge and charity by the din 
 of arms ; that would have made both nations worse, 
 and no the better ; and that could not have 
 
 failed . . ^st the advancement of true religion in 
 the world, and left an indelible reproach upon the 
 Christian name. But he who sitteth King forever, 
 has blessed the land with peace. " It is the Lord's 
 doing, and it is mai'vellous in our eyes." 
 
 I may not enlarge on this part of my subject, 
 Msny a time have we stood on the brink of a pre- 
 
44 
 
 cipice, when the hand of the Omnipotent Pre- 
 server has been reached forth to keep us from fall- 
 ing. God himself has " brought us out into a large 
 and wealthy place." He has watched over us; 
 guarded us as tlie apple of his eye ; and " having ob- 
 tained help of him, we continue to the present day." 
 Come see the works of the Lord. " Unto thee, O 
 God, do we give thanks ; unto thee do we give 
 thanks ; for that thy name is near, thy wondrous 
 works declare." 
 
 And now we ask, in the language of one of 
 other times, " If the Lord had been pleased to de- 
 stroy us, would he have showed us such things as 
 these 1" Has he been wont to do so to those whom 
 he has thus distinguished 1 Is there no reason to 
 hope, that the moral causes to which he has given 
 an impulse in this land, and which he is still direct- 
 ing, have not as yet finished the work which he 
 has given them to do ? Are there no streaks of 
 light in our horizon, and no bright signs of the 
 times, notwithstanding all the darkness? And 
 may not the day of mercy be dawning upon our 
 world, and the predicted period of Zion's glory be 
 too near, for this land to be abandoned of God and 
 destroyed 1 
 
 If these things are so, nothing may dissuade us 
 from our hope in God for the American people. The 
 resources that are necessary to our security and ad- 
 vancement are treasured up in him ; with him are 
 the means by which they may be made available 
 to ourselves ; these means and these resources are 
 under the control of prayer ; while in the develop- 
 
45 
 
 nient of his purposes thus far toward us as a people, 
 there are strong reasons for hoping that he will 
 still regard us with mercy. 
 
 Such, my respected auditors, are the dangers, 
 and such the hopes of the American people. If as 
 a people we appreciate them both, and act consist- 
 ently under their influence, our hopes will far out- 
 weigh our fears. Let us appreciate them, and let us 
 so conduct ourselves ! Let us do this, and demor- 
 alizing principles will no longer exult in the inac- 
 tion of the virtuous ; insubordination will cower 
 before the majesty of law ; and Rome will no lon- 
 ger triumph, because her strength lies in the divis- 
 ion and inertness of Protestants. The land will no 
 longer tremble with schisms of such an alarming 
 aspect, but animosities will be allayed, and divis- 
 ions healed. The zeal of party spirit will become 
 cool, and that phrensy will abate which makes so 
 many blind to the dangers which threaten us. We 
 shall be clothed with the dignity, the beauty, the 
 adornment, the strength of that spirit of mutual for- 
 bearance and conciliation, which will be the conso- 
 lation of our friends, the defeat of our enemies, and 
 approved by Heaven. The God of peace will cause 
 his favour to rest upon us " as the dew of Hermon, 
 and as the dew that descended upon the moun- 
 tains of Zion." Instead of following the fate of 
 lost republics, we shall remain a monument to 
 succeeding ages that " God is our refuge and 
 strength." From lofty towers of Zion, every- 
 where planted over this Western World, the 
 lips of our children and their children, long after 
 
46 
 
 yours and mine shall have mouldered in the dust, 
 shall say to this chosen land, " The Lord bless thee, 
 O habitation of justice and mountain of holiness !" 
 and the thanksgivings which we offer in his courts 
 to-day, and for which we have such abundant 
 cause, will be perpetuated by future times, and other 
 men will take up the Hallelujah Chorus, and " fall 
 down and worship Him that liveth forever and 
 ever." 
 
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